Dear Joe:

Randomly, everything works from time to time. For example, carrying a small rock or crystal that some people believe has power, a positive energy to make positive things happen, well if you carry this rock everywhere you go, you are bound to encounter something positive happening, something happening your way. Is it because of the rock?

What if I decide that painting my nose green is a sign of good luck (the luck of the Irish like)- and over ten years ten positive things happen in my life while my nose is green. What then?

Regarding gambling, as long as gambling institutions exist at all, it by definition means that most people lose all the time or most of the time and the chances, statistical chances that one person wins again and again do exist, but they are very small.

* Dear Wisdom: I am so excited you are reading this thread, as if it was written for you… but no, it was not- it just so happened that Joe wrote it. He was not destined to write it… This kind of thinking, Wisdom, is very common, this magical thinking. I employed magical thinking myself.. a lot! Glad to get rid of most of it, aiming at all of it!

anita

Hey Joe – thank you for your honesty. I’ve also read and watched The Secret countless times but not within the past couple of years. I guess in my eyes I’ve moved on to better sources of the information I seek. The Secret was however a great stepping stone for me to begin learning about the Law of Attraction. My quick story is I’ve come from a very dark past. Alcoholic/drug addict for 15 years while being married and trying to raise 3 kids. When my oldest was 6 I decided I needed to change. I went to AA and I got clean and sober. I was still bitter at life but I remained sober. Then about 3 years ago my wife of 20 years had an affair and my world came crashing down. We tried to work through it but ended up separating. This was the most painful time of my life. Most that knew me thought I might drink again but I didn’t. Besides crying a lot I also meditated a lot and this is when I found The Secret. I watched it every morning for a year. From it I found other sources of information to help my life. A year after being separated, my wife and I got back together and now we are happier than ever. I grew so much during that time. I am a completely different person. So I will always be grateful for The Secret and what it did for me.

With all that said, I too, like you can see a lot of flaws with the book and movie. I’ve learned since then that the Law of Attraction does exist but it doesn’t work by simply wishing upon something. I did the whole cork board thing, cutting out pictures of money, houses, and cars and looking at them every day but for the most part none of them came true. What I have come to realize is that you have to really want something for it to come into your life. The law only works when we give 100% of our focus to something and on top of that, we don’t have any underlying false beliefs that are sabotaging the whole thing.

We attract the things we truly desire by having true feelings for them. When you can think about what it is you really, really want and you get that tingly sensation of excitement inside, then and only then will you begin to attract the people, things, and circumstances necessary to make it happen. You see our thoughts and beliefs create feelings and our feelings emit a unique frequency that attracts like frequencies. It sounds crazy but it’s true. The Secret fails in this aspect. It makes it seems like all you have to do is haphazardly wish upon things and they come true. But for the law to actually work you have to radiate feelings of love, excitement, and passion about what you want.

The hard part is you may really want something but you might have deep false beliefs that are fighting against you. For example, say you desire to become rich, so you visualize being rich and focus on it, and have happy feelings about it. But deep down you have the belief that being rich is bad or that money is evil. Maybe this was something you picked up from your parents. I actually used to struggle with this myself. As a child I remember my parents always fighting about money and finances. They ended up getting a divorce because of it. This belief will hinder your efforts to attract money. You have to literally change those beliefs about money. This takes some serious inner strength. Trying to convince yourself and change your brain’s programming is very difficult. But it can be done. You have to convince your subconscious mind that money is not evil and that being rich is not bad but actually a good thing. It’s like rewiring your brain. I’ve had success meditating, reading affirmations, and visualizing every single morning for more than a year now. That is the type of dedication it takes.

So yeah, The Secret misses the mark. But it is a great entry level stepping stone for someone just learning about the law of attraction. It was for me anyway. Since then I’ve studied cosmology, ALL the universal laws, energy chakras, and so on. Now I’m surfing forums like this and have actually written several books on universal laws, affirmations, and started my own blog writing about it. For me though, it all started with being cut to the core in pain and finding The Secret.

In response to a couple of your comments if you don’t mind – This is why it’s important to practice positive thinking as opposed to negative. Because whether you are aware of it or not, you’ll attract like frequencies into your life. Our outer world is only a reflection of our inner world. For example, when you say life is “full of crap,” well you are right! If that is your belief then you’ll always find it to be true. That may be hard for you to hear but until you can change that belief then you’ll always experience it. The universe has no choice but to align your outer world with your belief that life is full of crap. I know what you mean Joe because I used to think the same thing. But I’ve learned that nothing happens in life by chance. If there is crap in my life it’s because I’ve attracted it. Now I choose to belief life is full of challenges (not crap). I actual celebrate challenges because they give me the opportunity to overcome and master new skills which makes me a more complete being. There is no crap in my life anymore. Once I started to realize that I create my own circumstances and that the world only reflects my thoughts and feelings back to me and that like frequencies attract like frequencies my life has turned around completely for the better.

Thanks for letting me share!

the whole universe thing is such a mystery but i think it’s best to just not think about it at all joe. did you ever wonder if the testimonies were fabricated? just to support this thing? it seems pretty farfetched for the most part. but when you see things happen for other people that kind of changes everything. but then again maybe they’re just lucky to get whatever it is that they wanted. or they probably deserve it more.

Dear Joe:

You mentioned false hopes in your last post. Like I wrote elsewhere today, reality is not as pleasant as some of those fantasy dreams of magical/convenient/feel-good thinking, but it is not even close to how badly it feels when we have to pay the price for those dreams, the pain of reality rudely waking us up from those dreams. Reality will not accommodate our fantasies. It won’t no matter how much we wish it would.

antia

I’m not trying to step on toes as I’m sure Anita will have a terrific answer. I’ve really enjoyed this topic. Since I’m new here I’m trying to tip toe around and not act like a know it all because I’m certainly still working on it all myself. But I found my head shaking in disbelief as I read through some of the last few posts.

Joe – all that matters is that YOU believe your dreams are doable. If you can imagine it, then it is possible. Nothing is fantasy if you really desire to achieve it. You say you need to work on your dreams and put effort into them. I agree but personally I would start with your inner limiting beliefs. Those are what are holding you back, not money or anything else, it’s your limiting beliefs. Re-read your post. You say, “I desire to do this BUT I’m aware it’s difficult, I want to do that BUT I’m aware it will never happen, I want to do that BUT I’m aware it’s a complete myth.” I was like dude seriously do you hear yourself. Why do you have these false beliefs? Why can’t you be a successful artist? Why can’t you be self sufficient? Ask yourself these questions brother. You can do anything you want to do. But you first have to believe it is possible.

We don’t have to worry about “how” things are going to happen or come together we just have to know that they will. This is how the law of attraction works. Just focus on what you truly desire and believe without a doubt that it will happen. Focus on it daily, think about it, visualize it like it’s already happened and feel how that makes you feel. Let those feelings radiate out and feel good about it and almost magically the right door will open, an opportunity will present itself, the money will show up, you’ll get that teaching job, etc.

Just my two pennies.

Hi Joe!

I’m new here but wanted to contribute my two cents because I’ve a lot of experience with The Law of Attraction. I completely agree with what Barry said. The only thing that matter is that YOU believe in your dreams.

I think there is a misconception out there that “thinking positive” means “ignoring reality” or “lying to yourself.” In my experience, the people who do this, have little or nothing to show for their positive thoughts. Thinking positive simply means looking at your situation but not making it worse than what it is.

This is what so many miss when trying to attract something into their life. They never acknowledge those deep beliefs about their current reality and thus they can never move pass it. You have to become aware of you truly feel and then question the logic around it. Because often we confuse being realistic with being pessimistic.

And on a personal note, I have been in the exact same situation you are (trying to be independent and move out my parents house) and used the law of attraction to do it. No it wasn’t just a coincidence. And no it wasn’t just me trying to draw a false correlation. Down to the exact detail, everything I visualized happened. If you’re looking for advice on that, I can definitely share more of my story.